Anytime I tongue any note for emphasis or division (I haven’t really started ornamentation much yet) I end up sounding like a recorder. Is it possible I’m doing it wrong? Suggestions? Thanks!
Edit: I learned to play using Bill Ochs’ tutorial, hus was tonguing from the beginning. I almost had to ‘re-learn’ in order to slur.
As your message is sitting there without reply I’ll have go. There are many ways you can go wrong about tongueing, if you sound like a recorder player and don’t want to sound like that, well you may have your answer there. Only last week a thread that discussed different ways of tonguing petered out involving loads of d’oh’s and dahs and tah and tuh’s, way over my head that stuff. The discussion whether tongueing is desirable at all is a recurring one too [yes it is, if it suits your playing and is done properly, I would say] an archive search should get you started easily.
I have the same problem. I fixed it by putting my tongue under the whistle mouthpiece. This prevents that sharp Tut sound. If you put your tongue under your brain will automatically find other less “tutty” ways of playing. Also, using this softer tonguing technique will require more accurrate blowing. If you jump up from a low to a high note and use a soft tonguing technique, any underblowing will sound bad. So don’t be afraid to puff good and hard…but not too hard. Put in earplugs if it bothers you at first.
Another piece of advice that I picked up from a professional…listen to yourself as you play. It seems you are already doing that…good!
Hi There,
Perhaps one of the reasons why you feel this way is because you have not tackled ornamentation as yet (as you did mention). Start trying to understand rolls,cuts,taps (basics) at this point. It’s never to early to start.The earlier the better!
Slant the whistle to the side. Now try “Tonguing”. In my own opinion it’s a much cleaner sound(the whistle for this sound is tilted almost like an Irish flute but don’t go to far sideways.You will feel what sounds correct with practice.
Also, try a “flutter” sound along with your tonguing.This can greatly add to the overall effect! Good luck Laura!–Talbert
Ok, here’s the thread that Peter was referring to, enjoy! 
If you’re “tooting” it may be that you’re actually sealing off the mouthpiece with the tip of your tongue… IMHO you don’t want to be doing that, I don’t think yer tongue should be touching the mouthpiece at all.
What you want to be doing is kind of “blipping” the airflow into the mouthpiece… which is the effect that all the “doh dah duh tuh tah ladada deelala” and other tonguing syllables produce.
My 2p 
I am not quite sure what you are saying there but it gives the impression you’d want to tongue ALL notes. I don’t think you should do that and I also think this is where some people go wrong. The best way is probably to compare more to bowing a fiddle, you tongue the notes that need it with the option of playing a bunch of legato ones in between like playing a number of notes on the one stroke of the bow. And like playing the fiddle it is to an extend up to your own style, taste or whatever you please to call it, to work it out in detail
[typos removed]
Argh! Nope, sorry if that’s what came across, not my intent at all. I was really trying to express the opinion that physically stopping the mouthpiece with the tongue results in “tooting” like a recorder… or rather like children tend to do on a recorder at first (in my experience). And that in my opinion the tongue (like the teeth) shouldn’t touch the mouthpiece at all.
Hope that clarifies…
Thanks for the tips. I tried to pay more attention to what I was actually doing, and it seems I WAS sometimes stopping the airflow with my tongue. I did slant the whistle to the side like Talbert suggested, and it helped. I started working on cuts last night and I sound at least 100% better (not that that is so great). I’d be lost without the help I find here.
Thank you!
Thanks for the tips, too.
From the thread title, I just couldn’t figure the proper way to tongue a newbie.